Almost 8,000 NHS hospital managers and consultants were paid six-figure salaries last year while nurses were “run ragged” because of dangerously low staffing levels.

Jeremy Hunt said he expected 'swift action' to be taken by failing hospitals Photo: EDDI MULHOLLAND

By Steven Swinford

10:00PM BST 21 Apr 2013

180 Comments

A survey by The Daily Telegraph has found that more than 7,800 NHS staff were paid over £100,000 last year, with a third of them earning more than David Cameron’s £142,500 salary.

The figures indicate that NHS managers and consultants have been protected from the Government’s £20 billion cost-cutting programme, with the number earning six-figure salaries increasing slightly in the past three years. Their total pay also rose over the same period, amounting to almost £1 billion last year.

Many of the highest paid individuals were based at hospitals which have been at the centre of patient care scandals or are in serious financial difficulties.

The trust with the highest number on six figures – Southampton, with 384 – was deemed by the Care Quality Commission last year to be “placing patients at risk”, so poor were its staffing levels.

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said the six-figure salaries sent the “wrong message” as front-line staff struggled to cope with “deep cuts” and pay freezes.

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The highest-paid executive earned £340,000 — almost 16 times more than ward nurses, who earn as little as £21,388-a-year. Eleven high earners have been paid more than £250,000 each. The true figures are likely to be far higher as dozens of hospital trusts failed to respond.

The number of NHS staff paid more than £100,000 has increased in the past year at almost half of the 75 trusts surveyed. In some parts of England, the number of high-earners has risen by more than 50 per cent.

Last year 17 NHS hospitals were censured for dangerously low staffing levels amid growing concern about the safety and dignity of patients.

At Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which was condemned for its “appalling” lack of care after one of the worst health scandals in living memory, a total of 85 staff are paid more than £100,000, up from 79 the year before.

Darren Cattell, the trust’s interim finance director, was paid £340,000 last year — almost £1,475-a-day — as the trust headed towards financial meltdown.

He left in May, four months before a team of consultants were sent in to investigate the trust’s £20 million deficit. Last week the trust went into administration and on Monday it will begin the bidding process for services to be taken over by other NHS trusts or the private sector.

The trust’s medical director was paid between £225,000 and £230,000. A spokesman said the trust had been forced to employ expensive interim directors to help turn the scandal-hit hospital around.

Julie Bailey, whose mother died in Stafford hospital and who later formed the Cure the NHS campaign group, said: “We have lost sight of what’s important, people are being rewarded for failure.”

At Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, which is being investigated by police after the deaths of a number of babies, 121 staff are paid more than £100,000.

The highest paid individual was a consultant who earned £280,000, while Tony Halsall, the trust’s former chief executive who resigned in February last year, was given a £225,000 pay-off. A spokesman said that pay was “in line” with other NHS trusts throughout the country.

Many of the high earners are at trusts which are currently being investigated for having high mortality rates. These include Basildon and Thurrock, Buckinghamshire Healthcare, Burton Hospitals, Colchester Hospital, East Lancashire Hospitals and North Cumbria, which have 274 staff on six-figure salaries between them.

At University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust, 384 staff were paid six-figure salaries last year, almost half of whom earned more than the Prime Minister.

But last October the Care Quality Commission warned that a shortage of nurses at Southampton General Hospital was “placing people at risk”. Inspectors heard staff were “run ragged” with some patients waiting hours for their meals

A spokesman for the trust said levels of pay reflected the “high number of senior and experienced clinical staff”.

Trusts said that the majority of high earners were senior clinical staff. The average consultant is paid £84,000, but can receive an additional £76,000 a year in “clinical excellence awards”, which critics claim are given as a matter of course.

At many trusts the number of staff on six-figures rose significantly. The number at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust increased from 20 to 31 in the past year, while at City Hospital Foundation Trust in Sunderland, 165 staff earned more than £100,000 — a rise of 10 per cent.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “Many of these staff are senior consultants and their pay reflects responsibilities and clinical skills. However, pay restraint is essential right across the public sector, and the NHS cannot be exempt from that. We have cut spending on managers and back office administration costs, and the number of admin staff has fallen by over 18,000

The Head of the Royal College of Nursing was interviewed this morning and admits there is a shortage of Nurses and the matter is being addressed. I think if Nurses are trained and paid for by the NHS they ought to agree not to go into private nursing or bank nursing for at least a year . this is one of the reasons there is such a shortage.I worked in Clinics and saw for myself the waste of money and mountain of beurocracy.

Bring back the Matrons and stringent cleanliness of both Wards and Staff I say.

As an aside , the measles crisis is escalating ......a man died yesterday after being examined with head to toe spots and sent home.!!1